[67] This memorandum did not represent the personal opinion of the Minister. The ideas expressed in it were the opinions of a group that included both socialists and bourgeois elements, men like Walter Rathenau, von Möllendorf (under-secretary of State under Wissel), Andreas, a banker, Georg Bernhard, editor of the Vossiche Zeitung, and others.

[68] Reier, Sozialisierungsgesetze, Berlin, 1920, p. 14.

[69] Wissel, then Minister of Public Economy, on March 7, 1919, before the National Assembly thus defined collective economy properly so-called: “Collective economy means the organization and management of private economic enterprises in the interests of the Reich, the subordination of private interests to collective interests. The application of this general principle to particular cases must be adapted to the special conditions of the different branches of the economy. Nothing can be worse than to want to make the economy rigidly uniform. Every economic group is a different organism that demands forms appropriate to it. This seems to be indicated in the exterior forms of union, such as capitalist economy practiced in its associations and cartels. But the spirit that prevails in these organizations must be raised above purely private considerations up to a sense of responsibility toward the people as a whole, up to the conception of a collective economy. Collective economy does not mean state economy, but autonomy. The State is not the master of economy. It can and should exercise supreme supervision and hold in equilibrium the opposing interests with justice and wisdom.”

[70] These sixty members are divided as follows:

The representatives of the states are named by the Reichsrat from among the municipal administrations and consumers of coal. The representatives of employers and employés in the mining industries as well as the twelve representatives of the colliers’ associations are elected by the mine groups of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft. Two representatives are named by the Prussian Minister of Commerce and Industry. The representatives of the coal trade are named by the German Congress of Commerce and Industry. The representatives of the employers and employés of the industries using coal, and the representatives of the employés of gasworks are elected by their Arbeitsgemeinschaften. The representatives of the small industries using coal are elected by the German Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The other representatives are appointed, on the advice of those they represent, by the Minister of Public Economy of the Reich.

[71] Stricken out at the demand of the Supreme Council of the Allied and Associated Powers. The Supreme Council addressed the following demand to Germany on September 2, 1919:

“The Allied and Associated Powers have examined the German Constitution of August 11, 1919. They observe that the provisions of the second paragraph of [Article 61] constitute a formal violation of Article 80 of the Treaty of Peace signed at Versailles on June 28, 1919. This violation is twofold:

“1. [Article 61] by stipulating for the admission of Austria to the Reichsrat assimilates that Republic to the German States composing the German Empire—an assimilation which is incompatible with respect to the independence of Austria.

“2. By admitting and providing for the participation of Austria in the Council of the Empire [Article 61] creates a political tie and a common political action between Germany and Austria in absolute opposition to the independence of the latter.